Re:Xbox creator Seamus Blackley baked a 4,500-year-old Egypt...
by Alex3917 on Wednesday October 28, 2020 @02:53PM
(#24922667)
I guess to me using something outside of its original context is just a subset of misrepresentation, in the sense that the value of the practice in question isn't being accurately portrayed.
In most cases, those appropriating other cultures actually love whatever they appropriate. That’s why they copied it in the first place. A lot of the flack for cultural appropriation comes not from that it ridicules other cultures, but rather that the artists/entrepreneurs/etc with visibility tend to be those from the dominant culture. They can profit from the ‘cool’ factor of appropriating other cultures, whereas for those from minorities that are being appropriated it is hard to find a spotlight.
Of course the kind of cultural appropriation that you describe also exists, i.e. wearing a native american headdress to a party or something like this. But that would be a subset and is not the generally used definition.